Nurkic benched, declines to speak to reporters: Explanations and reactions

Jusuf Nurkic was having a heck of a game.

Shooting 50% from the field and leading the team in scoring, nobody thought too hard when Nurkic was sent to the bench early in the fourth quarter.

“He’ll be back soon,” we all thought.

We were wrong.

Nurkic’s third quarter

Nurkic had 11 points and four rebounds in the first quarter alone. He was up to 15 at halftime.

During the third quarter, Nurkic went 3-6 for six more points, bringing his total to 21. Both there’s more to the story than stats.

As they usually do, the starters took the court to start the third quarter. By the time Nurkic was subbed out for his usual rest with 7:37 left in the quarter, the Blazers were up 62-54.

By the time Nurkic came back in with 3:12 left, they were down 65-69.

That means the Blazers allowed a 15-3 run without Nurkic.

Fourth quarter benching

Nurk started the fourth quarter, and pretty quickly found post position against Timofey Mozgof, getting up a decent baby hook that fell short.

It was the last shot he’d take all night.

With 11:07 left in the game, Ed Davis replaced Nurkic on the court.

Nurk sat for the rest of the game as the Blazers’ interior defense didn’t look any better without their most imposing big man than it did with him.

Nurk leaves reporters in the cold; Stotts tries to explain his benching

The questions about Nurk’s benching came right away:

Blazer’s Edge News Editor David MacKay reported that Stotts suggested it had to do with Nurkic’s defense:

The Oregonian’s Joe Freeman reported that other Blazers coaches were frustrated with Nurkic’s defense, too:

"At least twice, assistant coach David Vanterpool popped up from the bench and screamed at Nurkic for what appeared to be a lack of defensive hustle."

Anyone trying to get a quote directly from Nurkic on the matter would have had a tough time. Both Joe Freeman of the Oregonian and Jason Quick of NBC Sports Northwest reported that Nurk had left the locker room by the time reporters arrived.

For more context, Nurkic was also benched for the last 3:34 in the Blazers’ close loss to the Memphis Grizzlies earlier this week.

Wary Blazers fan may also remember that a lack of playing time led to friction between Nurk and his former team, the Denver Nuggets

Post-game reaction

The consensus came in quickly: Stotts had made a mistake in benching Nurkic.

Our own Twitter account had something to say on the matter:

Navigating to reddit.com/r/ripcity, Reddit’s Blazers community, nearly every commenter had criticism for Coach Stotts.

The same was true on Twitter. Search for “Nurkic Stotts” and you will find plenty of comments over the last 12 hours like the one below:

Dwight Jaynes of NBC Sports Northwest also had some pointed post-game comments for Stotts’ decision, in a video posted to Twitter (below):

"“This is a classic case of the Trail Blazers allowing the Brooklyn freaking Nets to dictate their lineups down the stretch of a game. You can’t let the Brooklyn Nets tell you who to play.”"

After all is said and done, there are a few simple truths.

The coach decides who gets to play and who doesn’t, and the players have to respect that. Even the best players should be prepared for being subbed in or out against their will.

On the other hand, if you use a lack of defense as the reason to keep the game’s leading scorer (and your team’s 3rd-best player) off the court, you’d better hope your team didn’t give up 15-3 run without him right before you did it.

Next: Blazers wobble, fall to Nets 101-97

It’s also true that the Blazers’ other two stars are often on the court in the late-game situations when a defensive stop is needed. And it’s not because of their defense. It’s because they’re your best players, and you don’t want to tick them off.

Unfortunately for Stotts, all signs point to Nurkic now being ticked off, and the Blazers will have to figure out how to mend that going forward.